I have a talent for investigation, and enjoy detective work. Toward the end of college, state troopers even tried to recruit me (that story is here). So I find myself very interested in the recent prison break story. I wish I could dig up some detail that would help to catch them. Something I was thinking today: seven days in the Adirondack woods can only result in being covered with black fly bites and Lyme Disease. They will wish they were back in prison.

The rose bush (in Castleton) is so pretty!

Spent the weekend in Samsonville, got chewed up by bugs (bugs hate, or love, me) and today I'm left with a couple somewhat worrisome, angry-looking , and very itchy bites.

All my seeds are up and looking good. Will mulch as weather allows.

Bugs hate me, spring 2013.

I have five incredibly itchy welts on my legs like this one. I got them on Sunday in Samsonville. It's now three days later and they show no sign of dissipating! I have no clue what the bugs were that bit me, as the bites did not hurt when they happened, and they did not itch right away. I was wearing long pants and not doing anything terribly adventurous, just sitting on the deck, with one stroll across the yard.

Something else I wanted to post on Friday but didn't: We were discussing super heroes (can't remember why, possibly roku-sparked). Neither of us had much interest in them when we were kids, but agreed that Batman was our least favorite. Bob said he'd always preferred Superman. I said my favorite was Superman. (But not the movies; I read and sort-of liked the comic strip.) I guess I identified with the high school geek element. I have two piercings in my left ear (and one in the right). In the extra hole, I often wear the (above) green spider earring. I find it rather amusing, since I was bitten and got very ill from a poison spider in 1984. But the coincidence of my teenage affection for Spderman had never hit me until now. I don't think I have any special powers though. (What's more ironic, that picture I took resembles a tick, ewww).

 Some of the others are gaining on it, but they are still dwarfed by Little Shop of Horrors

 The marigolds are finally thriving -- rain helped tremendously!

We had rain and thunderstorms yesterday and in the night -- the first truly "beneficial rain" we've had in quite a while. Hail was predicted in some places, and the lightening was terrific at times (almost had forgotten what it is like! See here) but we didn't sustain any damage and the plants loved it. I ventured out this morning and took the top two pictures of the tomato patch. It's a little soggy (not as much as it would be if we were not in such a dry spell otherwise).  Assuming it is a dry day, later I will check to see if there are any green beans to be picked. They were on the cusp of being ready Sunday night.

I am reading Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. A friend gave me the book for Christmas (I didn't see him until early July so that's when he actually gave it to me). I had to sit in the waiting room at Albany Med yesterday while Bob was having a test (he's fine) so I took my Kindle and started it.  So far it is an easy read, almost a page turner. My only criticism is that there are too many sentence fragments. They are intentional; that's the style. I follow that form myself sometimes in creative writing, but in this book it is excessive, and the fragments often come in a string, such as: "He stared into the dark. Squinted his eyes. Searching for movement. Turned slowly. Blinked." (This is not an actual quote, btw -- it is my approximation, but not that much of an exaggeration.) I am taking the train to Buffalo for a few days next week, and I plan to finish or at least make a dent in it then, so I'll have more to say after that trip.

Something I have been intending to share here but keep forgetting, a few weeks ago I received an email at my university account* about this blog post from 2003. Myrtle's great grandnephew was doing genealogy research on his paternal ancestors, and all he could find about her was my blog post. One piece of information I got from him is that her maiden name was Pemberton.

I wanted to help out, so my mother and I talked about Mimmie's stories, went through old pictures, and checked census records, and found that Lawrence McSpirit is listed as 13 years old in the 1910 Census (the page is dated May 11). Myrtle McSpirit's dates are March 9, 1905 - February 8, 2003. This is from the Social Security Death Index.

Ma said that Lawrence had moved from Hurley to Albany for work. This was at some point after the Ashokan Reservoir was constructed. He met his wife Myrtle in Albany. She also remembers that Mimmie said Lawrence disappeared after being paid on a Friday. His body was found sometime later in the Hudson River. The speculation was that he had been robbed, murdered, and thrown in the river. His father came up to Albany to identify the body and make the funeral arrangements.

The picture is of Alice McSpirit Krom (Mimmie's younger sister). The little girl on the left is her daughter Frances. The little girl on the right (blond hair) is Myrtle, daughter of Lawrence McSpirit and his wife Myrtle. Frances was born in October 1927. Our guess is that this picture was taken in the early '30s; Frances was probably 4 or 5. Myrtle looks to be about the same age. My mother remembers Mimmie telling her that this photo was taken after Lawrence's death. Little Myrtle stayed in Hurley for a while with her grandparents and Aunt Alice.

I wonder what happened to little Myrtle; all we know is Mimmie's note, where she wrote "married and living in Albany." This summer I will try to do something I have been thinking about since 2003, which is go to the Albany Rural Cemetery and visit the mother Myrtle's grave.  Perhaps Lawrence is there too.

*It's interesting that when strangers email me because of this ejournal or the Gully Brook Press website, they nearly always google my name and choose to contact me through the university, rather than the AOL or gmail email addresses I have listed here -- and this is true not just of academic and consulting inquiries, where it might be expected, but of correspondence of a more personal nature as well.

Later: I decided to do another knotweed assault. But the guy who cuts the steep part of the hill behind our house already did it!  He's awesome. So I just had to pull the stray ones that were coming up in the curcurbit patch. It was a humid 90 degrees, so I especially appreciated not having to weed whack the rest of the battlefield.

And: the weird round bruise on my shoulder from July 4 that turned into an itchy insect bite after a day and eventually went away has returned! Not the bruise but the itchy welt, exactly the same size and in exactly the same spot. What is it with me and freakin' bugs?

Bugs hate me, summer 2012 edition. On Wednesday, I noticed a small round bruise on my shoulder -- very dark and just a tiny bit larger than a pencil eraser. It didn't hurt or itch and I didn't notice when it happened. It almost looked as if I had been poked with a stick or wire although there was no cut or puncture. There may have been a tiny pin prick in the center, but I am not positive on that point. Today it looks like my usual reaction to an insect bite: larger (maybe the size of an asymmetrical quarter), angry red, very itchy. This isn't my only bug bite reaction this summer (I've had at least two others).  Despite the tag, I don't believe it is a BRS bite or Lyme rash, I just always categorize these bug bite posts that way. However, I'm watching it very carefully...

 Finally planted the window boxes! It was a very worthwhile project -- can't believe it has been more than three years, since the street was re-done, the door was restored, and Bob's surgeries, since we were able to plant them.

Too bad it isn't a great picture (aside from the subject matter, of course), but it is rare to be able to get one of all three of them together.

We had a good weekend in Samsonville -- the first of three in a row. Goal is to get the pool in shape and it will take at least that long to make a dent in the green. But we got our gas grill, the twin of the one we got for Castleton. Then beans and zucchini are up there. And it is ground zero for ticks -- ugh. I don't know how I am going to handle it. Sam got a dog tick on Saturday, and I found a deer tick on the couch Saturday night.

I've been having tooth issues again -- my original crown. Or so I thought. And I had made peace that I am probably going to wind up losing another molar. But my dentist isn't sure whether the problem is coming from my crown or from the tooth in front of it (which is strange since there is no pain and the nearby tooth has no crown and has not had a root canal; I expect it is the crowned tooth), so rather than referring me to an oral surgeon for an extraction, he referred me to an endodontist. My consult is June 20. So maybe something can be done and it won't have to be pulled? I am not optimistic, but there is a glimmer of hope. I don't know which of the minor annoyances of aging sucks more -- teeth problems or needing to wear glasses.

The Samsonville weekend was long and productive! Bob mowed, I planted zucchini and pole beans, we took the cover off the pool, went to the Memorial Day parade (the band was a little better than usual -- they played two songs), and did a lot of visiting. Ticks are no joke this year; I pulled one off of Sam on Friday (dog tick); Bob had one crawling on his wrist after mowing on Saturday, and I found one crawling around in my hair after we got back to Castleton. Both of the ticks on us were deer ticks. (And I took a shower and put my clothes in a plastic bag after removing the cover from the pool! I even sprayed myself with Off before that task, which is something I never do.) There were a few deer flies hoving around while we were working too. I should be more scared of those since that is how I got Lyme Disease! Maybe it is because ticks look like mini spiders?

Ah, that reminds me. While removing the cover from the pool, I encountered the biggest beetle I have ever seen. Seriously. It wasn't a June bug, either. Those are always big, but this made a June bug look like a Lady bug. Moments later, a huge spider appeared. Not only was it large, it was incredibly scary-looking. Hairy, fast, with an exotic pattern. Blended into the pool cover exactly. It wasn't a Black Widow or Brown Recluse (thank God). It looked like a Tarantula. Terrifying! I think Bob thought I was over reacting -- I was standing on the pool deck, removing leaves from the cover. There was no where to go to quickly get away from the thing -- couldn't jump into the pool and one of the stairs on the ladder is broken so you need to step carefully. He came up to see what the fuss was about, probably expecting to see a large wood spider or something. When he finally spotted it -- he freaked out too. This spider looked like it could take you down without breaking a sweat. I am not sure where it went once he got a look. It didn't stick around. Wasn't scared of me but figured he was a threat, I guess.

When we got back to Castleton, it had been so hot that my poor plants were so thirsty. Most looked dead. But I soaked them,and today they are fine. So -- planting day! The mosquitoes seem kind of tame by comparison to the jungle creatures in Samsonville.

Later: Google search indicates that it was probably a Wolf spider. A very large one! Biggest, hairiest and most colorful one I've ever seen.

The registrar's link is down, which means that students won't get their grades until tomorrow. Since the weather is not nice enough for gardening (the original plan, sigh), this means I won't have to be interrupted by queries of "why did I get ...?"(pick one: A-, D or E; in my experience other students rarely ask that question) today, and can happily surf and catch up on various details. One important loose end related to my research that I'd planned to wait at least a day before addressing has taken first priority.

Bob had a big day yesterday, and since I finished the grades, we went out to celebrate. That rarely happens when the grading marathon is done, because invariably I am done but he has a big meeting to prepare for or is traveling or something so it has to keep. Same is often true of his "big days" (yesterday is not my story and so not shared here), the timing almost always means that I have something major due and we can't celebrate. So that the planets aligned yesterday and we were both free and champing at the bit is notable.

It being a Monday complicates things, naturally, but we have a favorite restaurant that opened about six weeks ago. (The link goes to the original Delmar location.) The decor is so "2012," there is parking (given the location that is not a given), the food is fabulous, the by-the-glass wine selection satisfying, the prices not bad, and the owner is both competent and extremely gracious. We have been to the Albany Shogun location numerous times since they opened, and last night did not disappoint. Can't wait to go back!

Our anniversary is Thursday. Bob has a two-day meeting in NYC (of course) so we've been pretty up in the air about when to celebrate. With this being Memorial Day weekend, we are headed to Samsonville and neither of us likes going out to a fancy dinner there. When we go out it is usually casual, and we more often prefer to stay at home. We don't go there to go out on the town, we go there to be in the woods. (That sentence is making me think of ticks, eek.)

Given last year's fiasco, 2009's nightmare (and how could I forget this?), he thought it over and decided to go to NYC on Wednesday, and telecommute on Thursday so we can go out on the actual date, and be closer to Castleton. The current plan is to go to Lee, MA to the Salmon Run Fish House. It isn't really a fancy place, but it is special.

They are exiting? Not before taking the trees and branches across from my house. There was a crew here all day. I'm not complaining, except about the racket. That's one of the hazards of working from home so much. It can be beautiful, peaceful, birdsong the only sound (admittedly punctured occasionally by one or both of my buddies joyously barking). Or it can be VERY annoying - someone running a chainsaw, lawn mower, wood splitter all day, playing music at high volume, revving a motorcycle engine constantly or screaming while riding downhill in the winter (the hill behind my house is the best).

I like to do most work in natural sound. That's what I call it instead of silence. Years ago when I was studying for the GREs or something else high stakes such as comprehensive exams (a one day cram session, typically me) it was one of those days noise-wise - and I did something completely out of character, opened the window in my office and yelled outside to shut up!

Anyway, I remember a couple of weeks ago there was an article in the TU (advocate section I think) about people freaking over trees being cut. Admittedly, the picture did make it look pretty drastic, but I can't say I mind. It isn't that I don't like trees because I do. I love wilderness of all kinds, to the point that even though bugs hate me, I hardly ever kill them; I try to live in harmony with things others seek to exterminate. (Hardly ever rather than never because with my history sometimes I have no choice; it is self-defense. I apologise for it as the gardeners did in Atwood's In the Year of the Flood.)

The reason is because when the weather is bad, I am so grateful when the electricity stays on. This really hit home yesterday, when I was re-organizing the shed. (An aside, years ago we bought a Rubbermaid shed. Everything about our architectural footprint is small, the shed fits in perfectly. You know how sometimes you buy something and are uncertain whether it will be worth it? Well, that Rubbermaid shed has been worth ten times what we paid.) Back to spring cleaning. Something that was in the front of the shed is a kerosene heater. We had to buy it last time there was a major power outage that lasted a while. We don't lose our electricity all that often in Castleton, but it is routine in Samsonville. It is pretty rare for it to be off for a few days at a time even there, but still. And it is even worse in the winter when it goes out. So within reason, when powerlines are above ground - I say cutting branches is OK.

I have had Lyme Disease, been bitten by a Brown Recluse Spider, and been attacked by fire ants. On Sunday, I got swarmed by ground bees. Thankfully, only one sting on the back of my head. It hurt all night, and yesterday and today it is so itchy! Why do bugs hate me so much?

Sam aggravates bees - he thinks snapping at them is a fun game. He gets stung all the time, although usually the bees don't bother retaliating against anyone else. But ground bees hardly need to be provoked to be aggressive! Bob was stung twice last week. Sam is such a baby about pain, carries on terribly when he is stung. Not that it stops him from playing his game! Luckily, unlike Sophie, he is not allergic. On Sunday, Sam ran to the house as I was being swarmed. I did my best to get them off me before opening the door to the kitchen so we could both run inside. The ones that were chasing us didn't get in, but I brought in one under my shirt. I was in a panic until I found it.

So this morning I checked around the yard to see where the nest is, since I am going to have to weed whack sometime this week, also I can't risk Sophie getting stung, because she will have a reaction. Bad news! It is under the composter.

It was a beautiful weekend. It is a great year for foliage. Yesterday, we went to Golden Harvest and got apples, we also took a tour of their new distillery, where they make vodka. I made apple crisp! It is so easy, much faster than pie, and it came out delicious. I think I am feeling a lot better re: Lyme Disease, but I still find myself extremely tired at times.

Since Lyme Disease, I've been more tired than usual. I have been trying (somewhat successfully) to get more sleep. To some degree, I have no choice because I am SO tired. But I still have to be careful about letting myself stay up to late. I did some reading and was concerned that maybe it was "Post-Lyme Disease Syndrome" (I wasn't overly concerned because what I read says it usually resolves on its own after a while). But after I read more I determined that I don't have that many of the symptoms. My biggie: episodes of extreme tiredness. The syndrome seems to include neurological, memory, mood problems, etc. and I don't notice any of that. Maybe concentration / focus issues a *little,* but that always accompanies tiredness so I haven't really separated it as a symptom. Plus, the problems have to persist for six months after treatment and I haven't even been done with doxy for a month yet. So I guess this is just what is expected with Lyme Disease, and it will go away eventually.

The weather has been so warm that we left the pool open. I swam Friday night, Saturday (in the rain) and Sunday. I think it will have to be closed this weekend though. Although they are kind of shopworn, the gardens continue to produce. Tonight we are having fresh beets! Can't wait!!

Classes are great. I've had a couple of irritations, but nothing serious enough to lessen how good this semester has started out. My enrollment is pretty even so far: in the four classes there are 26, 28, 30, 32.

One thing I note, not just this Fall, but gradually over time, is the number of students who call me by my first name without asking. That's irritating when it is anyone other than a serious, well-meaning student. With wonderful students, I really don't care, even if I do believe they should ask me if it is OK (and I would say yes, even though I am silent on the subject in class - I mean, I don't prompt it).

But there are some who do it to show disrespect. They become overly familiar because they want to decrease the status differential for bad reasons. There is a problem and they claim it is my fault. Cheating. Not doing various assignments. Bad attendance. Missing deadlines. They think by calling me by my first name it will decrease my authority, and increase their control. I only say something when I am really pushed, and once this summer I told the offending student that I preferred to be called Dr. He continued to use my first name anyway. Very passive-aggressive. Would you have done that to the person who has the power to assign grades?

I know it has been a while since I signed on, because the blogger dashboard is different tonight.

I got my grades done (I thought I had until 11:59 pm on the 21st...turns out that I was holding up the registrar from doing degree clearance for August graduates! Yikes! I am not sure if Lyme Disease has impacted my brain, or if the registrar was just hassling me). I failed two students and gave three D grades. I already had quite a go around with one of the students who failed. I suspect I will get some complaints, if not from another of those five then from one of the students who got C or B. There were quite a few A grades this summer also. That is the way summer is, students are either completely motivated, or total slackers.

I have three of my syllabi done, and the online class partially updated. I am always pushing deadlines, but this semester is ridiculous.

But I will get everything done tomorrow, and the weekend looks great for swimming. I am also going to plant spinach.

Last night we went to see Neil Diamond at the Times Union Center. (Note: it will always be the Knick Arena to me.) I am not a fan of his at all, in fact the only song that came to mind when I agreed to go was "Coming to America." (Turns out that was the encore.) We got the tickets for free, though, and who can say no to that? They were nosebleed, second row from the top, but even those go for $55 each. Apparently, when shows don't sell out, the unsold tickets are donated to charities, and become tax write-offs for the arena and entertainer. So that's how we got them.

It was a curious experience, watching the concert from so high up. I don't think I have ever sat so far away. It wasn't bad, actually, because it was not nearly as loud up there. And when you aren't a major fan, it is more comfortable to sit away from the groupies who were throwing underwear on the stage. Sometimes it was almost like being an observer, rather than a participant. The one drawback was that it was hot up there! It seemed that many people around me were afraid of heights. Despite my various phobias and neuroses, that isn't a problem of mine.

He played several songs from a new album (the standout was a song called "Pretty Amazing Grace,") and a lot of his old stuff. It turned out that I knew about three-quarters of them, for example "Sweet Caroline," "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (a song I have never liked, but then I am not a Streisand enthusiast, and most recently she generates memories of my last root canal - when the dentist was playing one of her albums and I thought I would go insane), and "Forever in Blue Jeans."

He spoke about his faith and his Brooklyn childhood. There was a big screen behind the stage with close ups of the band, or sometimes with pictures of his family, from when he was a kid, so binoculars were not necessary. It was somewhat generic (he didn't mention Albany) and he didn't do that much chatting. There was no political commentary, which was a welcome change from most concerts I attend. I can't say it transformed me into a fan who will run out and buy his albums, but it was a surprisingly enjoyable night.

I almost forgot! Ande got his first mouse. He was so proud that he puffed up to twice his size, but even at that, he is still much smaller than Edna. She supervised. It was kind of awful in a way (I can't even kill spiders or ants), but on the other hand, getting rid of (indoor, he will never be allowed to get critters outside) pests is a great thing about cats. Both dogs were either afraid or disgusted, I couldn't tell which. They do not seem to have any instincts.

There are parents who put "my child is an honor student" bumper stickers on their car. And then there's me, recording my cat's first successful hunt.

Finally: some interesting links on Lyme Disease / transmission from insects other than ticks here.

I had another blood test. I'm not sure why, maybe to be sure the doxy is working. He said my initial tests were strong positives, and that the infection was recent, which confirmed to me that the deer fly was the culprit. (I could tell the doctor was skeptical, though.)

Tonight I am making zucchini parmesan. Such a beautiful day...it was hard to stay out of the sun. (I cheated a little and worked in the garden a bit - hopefully not long enough to make my skin blotchy.)

After my sister sent that link, I decided to search "deer fly" rather than "black fly." It works better, resulting in the following links: from Ohio State University, from yahoo, and finally, this one. There are more, but most of these searches are already overlapping.

In thinking about it, we have never had many classic Adirondack black flies in Samsonville. They are deer flies, as described in the OSU link. That must be what bit me.

Also, I've added a "Lyme Disease" tag to these posts.

A few weeks ago I added another record in the Brown Recluse Spider bite site. I had to create a new one, rather than just adding the incident to the existing record from the 1984 bite. I decided to share it there not because it is due to a BRS this time, but just because that is a great site that people go to for information when they have a weird reaction or rash.

I have to go back to the doctor for a follow up. He asked me when I was there on the 14th whether I consider myself to be at high risk for Lyme Disease. Am I outdoorsy? I said yes, definitely. Not that I am one for camping or tromping through weeds, because I am not. But I am not exactly a couch potato and my surroundings are often rural. I am careful about checking for ticks (I've never found one attached) and wearing long pants etc. in risky areas. But both Samsonville and Castleton are known as places for deer and ticks and I always hear that so-and-so has Lyme Disease. Rudy had Lyme Disease when he was about 7, at that time we used to walk him at Schodack Island State Park (we stopped as soon as we figured out that it is loaded with ticks near the Hudson).

When he asked me, I didn't say yes for this reason, but Castleton has tons of mosquitos (although I think they may have been worse in some past years), and Samsonville is loaded with deer flies (especially this year).

My sister found this link from the New England Journal of Medicine about Lyme Disease being transmitted by a fly.

I tested positive for Lyme Disease! So that means 28 days of Doxycycline. Yuck. I am so nauseous from my morning dose as I write this. But I certainly don't want to get any other symptoms of Lyme, so take it I will. What is scary about my diagnosis is that everything I have read about Lyme says that it takes ~3 days for an attached tick to transmit it, and that there is no evidence that it can be transmitted by other insects. Yet I was standing on my deck and felt the bite. Checked it within five minutes and saw the reaction, and no attached tick.

So to me this means, with my n=1, that I got it either from a flying insect (such as a black fly) that bit me through my jeans (which is what I suspect), or that a tick crawled into my pants, bit me, immediately dropped off, yet gave me Lyme Disease. I know a lot of people who have tested postive without ever finding a tick. The assumption is that they had one attached, didn't see it, and it fell off eventually. Now I say, maybe not. Maybe they were bit by a black fly and didn't think anything of it. Didn't get a rash or major reaction, but then developed Lyme symptoms weeks later.

I did find these websites, here, and here, of people writing about their Lyme experiences. Both mention black flies as the vector. So I make three! I say, why not? In Samsonville, there are lots of deer. Also lots of deer ticks and black flies. A tick can pass Lyme from a deer to a human. Why can't a black fly do the same? I am remembering the Brown Recluse bite in 1984 again, that at that time almost no one had heard of poison spider bites and the trouble I had with a diagnosis. So I am always Case #1, it seems.

Also in my research, although my rash was not the classic bull's eye, I can see that it resembles a Lyme rash. In darker skinned people it can look almost like a bruise, and that is how I would describe my rash in some places.

What a summer!

Lyme Disease test results are not back yet. They should be available on Monday.

Remember this?


Taken June 24

Then, there is this:


Taken June 27

I stopped taking pictures after this, because it was so much better:


Taken June 29

I got out the camera again to take these two:



Front of my leg:



Both taken July 14

I am on doxycycline. It is awful! So harsh, it makes me immediately sick to my stomach, dizzy and gives me an unpleasant metallic taste in my mouth. And there are so many rules: stay out of the sun. Take it on an empty stomach. No yogurt, milk, magnesium for hours. But it works fast, my leg already looks a lot better, thankfully. I will know the results of the Lyme test in a few days (although I am sure it isn't Lyme Disease).